IC: Chasing the Prize, We always get our mark Options

[BishopMcQ]

Helios:
Moving through the smoke is tricky. You nearly stumble over a limp body but see her just in time. Long black tresses tumble over a loose fitting armored jacket. The beautiful mediterranean features of the woman are broken by spasms that rock her body as she is overcome and killed by the neurotoxin.

Shapes move like shadows in your mind, the only way to tell professional from not is who is choking on the gas and who isn't. Rising up the stairs out of the smoke, you come to the landing at the second floor. Hallways race on either side of you--bedrooms, linen cabinets and servant's quarters.

None of them scream to you that a mass-murdering ghoul is living behind their shelter. The stairs continue upwards to another level. Behind you the sound of several figures in heavy armor comes echoing up the stairs. They seem to be moving with purpose.

[HMHVV Hunter]

Helios arrives at the top of the stairs and takes the next set of stairs, not wanting to find out who's behind him. Not that he could make our their features anyways.

[BishopMcQ]

Helios:
You dash up the stairs, taking the next set two at a time. Here there are two doors, one to the right and one to the left. It appears that the top floor has been divided into two private suites. Each door is heavy oak, gilded and gaudy. An old style key lock appears to be all that stops you from entering.

[HMHVV Hunter]

Helios jiggles both doorknobs, checking to see if either of them are locked. Excessive noise is the last thing he wants right now. He does so very quickly, however, knowing that with those goons coming up the stairs, his time is running out.

[BishopMcQ]

Helios:
Neither door opens as you rattle the handle. The sound of footfalls on the stairs is getting closer.

[HMHVV Hunter]

Damn

Slinging his SMG, Helios pulls his katana from his back sheath and slices through the lock on the door to the left of the staircase.

If successful, he rushes into the room and closes the door again, sword at the ready.

[Ecclesiastes]

"Does anyone out there besides myself have the gear to ignore that gas? Bust out your respirators folks. I need an answer from everyone before I can formulate a game plan.
...
And guys... I know this group. Personally. You can expect a mage, a sniper, a rigger, and four mercs. The mage and sniper are dealt with, so we should be ok there. These mercs are trained by the best, so we need to do this by the book."

[BishopMcQ]

Helios:
The katana digs heavily into the wood and gilt. It almost becomes stuck but you are able to clear it from the door. Time is running short, the team will be upon you in seconds.

[HMHVV Hunter]

Helios shoulder-charges the door, hoping to break it open.

[BishopMcQ]

Helios:
You rebound off the door once and notice that it has begun to move. Slamming your weight into it a second time, it is forced open. The bruises on your arm and shoulder are already blossoming under your coat.

The door closes quickly behind you. Welcome to the sitting room.

The room is well appointed with comfortable chairs, a full bar and women's lingerie strewn hectically. Your enhanced sense of smell catches the smell of blood, and beneath it the cloying smell of death and rotten meat that accompanies your prey. A gagged cry is picked up from the next room.

Having heard the stories of Ballefour's house, and your own first hand experience with flesh eaters, you know too well what is happening on the other side of the door. Apparently no one ever told young Lucien not to play with his food.

A short burst of EX-EX rounds rocks the door behind you. They're coming.

[HMHVV Hunter]

Gotcha!

"Guys, I'm in the room right next to Balfour. It's on the third floor, take both staircases going up right next to the room I busted in through," Helios whispers into his comlink, making sure he's situated out of LOS from the hallway. "Those mercs are right behind me though; I need backup and I need it NOW!"

Going over to the room where the horrific sound is coming from, Helios levels his silenced Manhunter at the lock and blows it off, kicking the door down once that's done.

[Ecclesiastes]

"Helios, stand down. I repeat, stand down! Those guys are pros and there is no way for us to get to you in time. I suggest jumping out a window or finding a place to hide or you will be killed. Four to one odds and you're a dead man."

Outloud, Bishop says to Graves and Edana, "Come of you two, lets go save his hoop. Edana, keep an eye on the astral and make sure we're clear on that end."

Bishop's jog breaks into a full scale run for the building.

"Infiltation Team, be advised, Van Team is moving around back to enter the same way the mercs did. You move in through that window and we'll converge in on them from both sides."

[HMHVV Hunter]

Damn!

Helios hated giving up, but he had to admit that he wouldn't be any good to Seattle if he were killed by these mercs. He'd have to get Balfour later.

Helios looks for a window he can bust out of and get himself out of this mess.

Whoever you are in that room with him, please forgive me. If I could end your suffering quickly and immediately, I would...

[toturi]

As soon as Graves enters the building, he hits the colour controls on his jumpsuit for it to change into Urban camo.

[Ecclesiastes]

As the Van Team comes around the back of the house, Bishop catches sight of the Hellhound pen. He reaches into one of his many pockets and pulls out a pair of grenades, loads them, and fires them off into the area the hounds are kept.

[HMHVV Hunter]

"I'm busting out of here," Helios says over the comlink, rushing for the nearest window and jumping through it.

[HeySparky]

Edana pauses and quiets her mind opening her senses to astral space, but not pushing her Will through the veil. She takes a deep breath, inhaling and inhaling and inhaling, drawing any hint or wisp of magic into her.

Herne chuckles, a hard sound that raises Grave's and Bishops' arm hair. Not by the hair on my chinny-chin, chin.

[toturi]

As Bishop fires his grenades at the hell hound pen, Graves holds his breath and pantomines a gas mask. Holding his sleeve close to his nose, Graves asks,"Edana, can you summon a hearth spirit to protect us from the stun gas?"

[Bastard]

"Lets get in there," JT dons his resperator. His muffled voice barks orders to his K-9 in the darkness, "Kane, guard here. Guard." He enters through the window, and releases the invisiblity spell he holds on Kane. "If the mage is dead, I can move on undetected, and probably hold one or two more under my invisible spell. Tigger where is the target?"

[HeySparky]

Edana looks warily up at the brooding chateau as she wrestles her respirator on. Her heavily accented voice is muffled and even harder to understand than usual, "Considering what's going on, I don't think anything I conjured in there would be much interested in helping us."

She smiles wealky, invisible behind her mask, "But, it's worth a try. Have to get inside first." Herne moves in ahead of Edana, bow drawn, hammerhead arrow nocked. Edana moves in behind, shooting a grateful glance at Bishop as he catches her when she slips on a patch of ice at the side of the door. She ducks in through the low door into the dim kitchen.

She begins her conjuration and the smell of wet stone and wood polish, smoked and roasting meat.... and blood... grow heavy in the room. She throws her head back speaking into the astral plane as she draws the essence of the place to her, feeling the old power of the place beating in on her. We do not seek to harm this place as others do. Others - she imagines the symbol of The Society - do not respect this place and poison the air and shatter its bones. We seek only the flesh-eater. Help us to safely find him and safely leave with him.

[HMHVV Hunter]

Crashing through the window and landing with a roll, Helios rushes over to the part of the house where he remembers the rest of the team being, deciding it's better to go in with this bunch and capture Balfour than go back in alone and lose the mark.

[BishopMcQ]

Edana:
The air is quiet and still around you, bodies half-concealed by darkness resonate clearly in the astral realm. Slowly you watch the light of a cook's assistant fade out as his blood ooze out on to the cold tile.

Your summoning begins, tattered fragments of ancient memories stir and coalesce. An aged man, in victorian era clothing stands before you.

"Hunter's Child, we hear your call. The master of this house would shelter all those inside of it, but with the entrance of usurpers, the rules of hospitality must be set aside. Travel under my care, you shall be concealed from those you hunt and protected from what accidents may befall you in our house."

Helios:
The snow absorbs the impact of your fall, graciously tended by the magics that fill your body. With a lurch, you rise to your feet and stumble before running to meet your companions.

JT:
The team around you radiates with life, elsewhere within the house life exists, some above you, others on your own level moving in your direction.

[HMHVV Hunter]

"Guys!" Helios says as he rushes up, still feeling the effects of the stun gas.

"I don't know who those Society guys are, but their equipment is top-notch. Saw a patch on one of their armors - "In hoc signo Invictus," it said. Sounds Latin, but I'm not sure what it means."

"Alright, so a single-man stealth infiltration wasn't as good an idea as I thought it would be. Any other ideas?"

[Ecclesiastes]

Over the comms: "All Team, converge on the stairway. Edana, can you have that spirit go check out the third floor and let us know when the opposition is coming our way?"

[HeySparky]

Edana nods, << Got it, Bishop. Right behind you. >> She closes her eyes, shaken by the sight of the bodies in the kitchen. These Society guys... she swallows, thinking not for the first time since she'd gotten the call from Gonzales, that she is in WAY over her head. Gonzales. Her fingers clench on the bow and she feels empty and angry. The bow trembles slightly and Herne gives her an appraising glance.

Thank you, Hearth Keeper. Please find these interlopers and keep us aware of their movements. I think you will find them on the third floor. One question as you go, Hearth Keeper, will the master of the house oppose us?

Edana's voice is muffled over the comms, << Done. Let's move. Do we wait at the stairs or head up? And aren't there usually dumbwaiters in these old places? >> She glances in the corners of the room, looking for the telltale chest high doors.